


Secrets of a Wonderful Life – 1950

by anne_20



Series: Vestiges of the Shattered Ghost King [2]
Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1950s, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Fluff, M/M, Period-Typical Homophobia, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-21
Updated: 2015-03-21
Packaged: 2018-03-18 18:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3579861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anne_20/pseuds/anne_20
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>(Nico a World War II veteran thinks about the nature of his secrets and how his life changed since 1943 when he was injured in the war.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secrets of a Wonderful Life – 1950

**Author's Note:**

> Notes:  
> /text/ refers to Morse code  
>  _Italic_ refers to thoughts  
>  This is a companion piece to Shattered Ghost King, set seven years after the events of that story. *****Warning this contains spoilers for that earlier series*****

It was strange how his secrets had changed, he mused.  His deepest secrets were the type of thing acquaintances talked about over dinner parties now that the war was long over.  Not that he ever would.  And his least secret, known by most of his friends during the war, was the one that could destroy everything. His friends were a decidedly small and loyal group, but really what was the big deal.  They kept to themselves and it was 1950 after all. This wasn’t the dark ages.  The difficult part was he had to live the lie every day. If he slipped at the wrong time it would be all over. That fear of being found out haunted him after the last incident. So they moved to a secluded cabin in the Canadian forest to get as far away from England as possible. He had insisted. He wonder how long this one would last, it was nice here.

Well it was not like he had a choice about lying, this was the only thing he wanted out of life. He smiled inwardly as he brewed expresso on the stove. He took a small sip as soon as it was finished and put the teapot on. The smell of coffee always made him think of his childhood home, but this time he thought of the awful hospital coffee. He wondered what had plunged his thoughts into that particular moment from the past. Maybe it was the white crocus littering the clearing behind the cabin that shown brightly in the early morning sunlight.

He grinned to remember when the scent of that flower that had restarted his life. Before he had a whole sound body, but his mind was consumed with war and death.  He was desperate to escape the emptiness and clung on his last remaining friend like a lifeline.  The war ended for him in May of 1943. Afterwards he was physically stripped of everything, his last friend, his contact with anyone, and was even beginning to lose touch with his sanity. He was left in the dark, in the silence with only echoes of the dead, but cruelly alive. 

Then the sun came out in the form of his ‘sweet angel Will’. It was like waking again after a long evil nightmare. It took a long time to purge the torrent of misery that made up his past, but he did recover to have so much more than he had even dreamed possible.  He had never expected or even wanted survive the war, but now he cherished every moment of this, his second life, and would defend it with all he had. It didn’t matter that he was deaf and lame.

As he stared blankly into the yard as he rubbed his knuckles over the two rings on a chain around his neck. The first was a skull ring his sister gave him as a boy. It was the last time he had really been a child. The second was an old fashion wedding ring that bound him to his new life.  It was diamond shaped with three rectangular cut blue sapphires in the center and small diamonds around the outside of a gold setting. The chain hung down over his bare chest and the gold glowed beautifully on his warm olive skin.

Then he felt warm large hands wrap around his chest from behind. The middle finger of the left hand had a solid gold band on it. A warm chest pressed against his back and a warm cheek pressed against his ear. His heart jump and he sighed as he leaned his head back onto Will’s shoulder.  He moaned as a tongue swirled in his ear. 

Will wrap his hand round the rings laying on his chest and tapped out a message in Morse code on his sternum. /My Angel/ Then he proceeded to place butterfly kisses over his cheeks.

Nico chuckled and said, “You’re the angelic one. I’m the noisy bastard remember.”

His accoster ran his other hand into his raven locks and tilled his head to capture his lips.  He began a messy eager deep kiss while at the same time signaled, /I like you noisy and I seemed to remember you yelling I was demonic along with some choice swear words last night/

Nico made a half turn, so he could put a hand on the blondes chest and signaled without breaking the kiss /Turn off the stove, my demon angel, and we can have another round/ His other arm wrapped around the blonde’s trim waist to pull him tighter to his side.

Being a homosexual couple was the type of secret that could ruin their lives. Usually they went after him; he was the smaller creepier one. Everyone liked William. This last incident had been disturbing, they had studied them, and had targeted Will for the beating of his life since he was actually the weaker of the two. Luckily Nico came home early and found them. He smiled at his take down of the three large thugs. They may have known he was stronger, but they never expect his wicked ability to fight three against one. The police attempted to charge him with assault when clearly the three assholes had entered his home and were the aggressors. That was when he decided he had had enough of England. 

He suggested Canada, knowing they could easily get lost in the fast wilderness. William resisted for a while, but his sisters were gone now and the two oldest married and his youngest went to live with Katie about a year ago.  That was after Nico had been attacked.  When his youngest sister wanted to move away with them, he finally relented. Of William’s sisters, Lucy was by far Nico’s favorite and she doted on him too.

So they moved to this cabin in the peaceful wood at least 10 miles away from the closest neighbor. It was far enough away that Lucy board at school and returned home only on the weekends. And he lived the lie every time he stepped out the door. The masquerade was they were widowers and William was his care giver. He knew that Canadians were less hung up on propriety and conforming than the English, so he hoped that anyone who did figure it out would be unconcerned.  He would do anything to keep them together.

It was five years ago when William had given him his mother wedding ring and afterwards he had bought William the solid gold wedding band engraved ‘ _to my sun, from your angel’_. They absolutely belonged to each other, nothing would come between them, ever. So yes, this was a wonderful second life. He let himself be lead into the bedroom.

**Author's Note:**

> This bit of fluff has been circling around in the future story of Shattered Ghost King for a few weeks now, but I’m posting this in celebration of my wedding anniversary. I took a long hard route to find him, but I’d do it all over again in and instant.  
> Thanks for reading,  
> Anne  
> P.S. Please leave comments. Would you like to see more of this timeline? or one shots through the years?


End file.
